This outstanding book covers Czechoslovaks in many states with facts and stories including Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Published prior to the 1993 independence and naming of the Czech and Slovak Republics, this book includes the common history, culture and traditions which united them in numerous ways.

Crafts are stressed. There are how-to-do-it sections. In addition to kraslice (egg decorating), there is an article, by Anna Petrik of Caldwell, Kansas, on how to make bread dolls and an article on how to make corn husk dolls. The bread sculptures and Christmas cookies of Lester Sykora of the Czech Village, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, are shown.

Marj Nejdl is featured with the kraslice (painted eggs) and her lovely drawings. She is a distinguished Cedar Rapids folk artist. Kraslice artists also include Kepka Belton, Kansas; Zora DuVall, Illinois; Wash Hornick, Tennessee; and Sidonka Wadina-Lee, Wisconsin. Instructions for decorating eggs are in the book.

The Bily Clocks of Spillville, Iowa are featured in an article by John Zug who visited the brothers Bily on their farm in 1932 to see their woodcarvings. Spillville's St. Wenceslaus church is shown.

Special articles cover the great Midwest including the Czechs who settled on the Cherokee Run in Kansas and Oklahoma. A chapter covers Texas Czechs.

The Slovaks of Pennsylvania and the Cleveland Czechoslovaks are noted in an extensive article.

There are approximately 100 recipes from contributors from Czechoslovak areas and most of the recipes are not in our previous titles:The Czech Book and Czechoslovak Wit and Wisdom.

Pat Martin, author, served for many years as coordinator for the Czech Village Association festivals and events in Cedar Rapids.

Wild Cards 7, written by George R. R. Martin and John J. Miller is one of the best Wild Cards books so far. Eventhough I don't generally like the mosaic novels, this is a prime example on how it should be done.

It's possible that it is so succesful because there are only two writers, which clearly helps the pace. And ofcourse, the fact that half the book is written by my favorite writer George R. R. Martin, speaks for itself.

Dead Man's Hand is a 'parallel novel' to Wild Cards VI: Ace in the Hole. It follows a plotline that was mentioned in WC6, but not exploared - Chrysalis's murder, and the attempts by Martin's Jay 'Popinjay' Acroyd and Miller's 'Yeoman' Brennan to find the killer.

Popinjay, previously meerely a secondary character, proves to be a classic Martin hero - witty, clever and seemingly superficial, there is more to him than meets the eye, although that is only revealed slowly. I must admit I was disappointed that we won't see the Turtle in this story, but Jay was a suitable compensation.

Yeoman was a different story. Although I have allways liked him, his new love affair with Jennifer 'Wraith' Maloy, is not only unlikely but uninteresting, unlike his past relation with Chrysalis. Now Brennan is little but your average action hero running aroung beating people up and delivering one liners.

As a mystery, the novel works rather well. Certainly the identity of the killer is unexpected. On the other hand, the authors don't quite let you feel this is a Mystery novel - you're too focused on the action/thrilelr plots resolving the story of T-Malice, the master that enslaved so many Wild Cards characters, and the Shadow Fist gang - who try to benefit from Chrysalis's murder.

One of the things I liked best about this novel was the focus on jokers. Although the heros are an ace and a nat, there are more Jokers active in this Wild Cards novel than in any other, many of them showing strength and courage. The Wild Cards series tends to focus on Aces, but I personnaly like the Jokers at least as much, and quite possibly more. The dark side of the Virus, so to speak, can be more fascinating than the more obvious Superhero stuff.

Overall Dead Man's Hand is a thrilling ride, filled with action, advanture, cool ideas, and an extremely powerful climax, in which there is a confrontation between several major characters. The confrontation at the end is one of the Wild Cards' strongest moments, and this novel certainly holds up there with DOWN AND DIRTY, as the best of the Wild Cards so far.

Just got my copy and man, does it make my head spin with such meticulous detail! I'm taking it down to the Hollywood Hills coffee shop (although never a Dean haunt) to read while listening to his great music in a big red booth! Bravo, Mr. Chintala!

Having started university and been interested in this period of history, this book provides a prefect introduction to the complex issues surrounding the development of a more modern form of agriculture from the inter-war period to the present day. Its prose has a captivating style and is very informative. Above all, it is INTERESTING!

Very few high families in England have had so dramatic a history as the Fitzalan-Howards. All the first four Howard dukes were attainted, the 3rd duke escaped execution only because Henry VIII died that morning (though two of his neices who became queens of England were beheaded), the 4th duke was unjustly executed, the 5th duke went insane, the 6th duke was excluded from public life because of his Catholicism, the 7th duke's wife left him in a public scandal, the 8th duke died prematurely, the 9th duke was childless and saw the end of his branch of the family, the 10th duke died an alcoholic, the 11th duke lost two wives and produced no legitimate children, the 12th duke's wife left him shortly after their marriage, the 13th duke's eldest son died suddenly just before his majority, the 14th duke died young and painfully, and the 15th duke's only son was born blind and epileptic. As the leading Catholic family in England, they were aristocratic outlaws -- yet they were and are that nation's premier peers, hereditary marshals of England, and possessed of great wealth. The author (who is Fitzalan Pursuivant Extraordinary) makes clear that high title is no guarantee of success or happiness. And yet their dukedom has survived for more than five centuries. As Earl Marshal, the 16th duke was responsible for organizing the corona-tions of two sovereigns, the funerals of two more (as well as that of Sir Winston Churchill), and the investiture of the present Prince of Wales; with the advent of radio and television, this made him widely recognized to the public at large. Semi-scholarly (there are numerous footnotes) and heavily illustrated, this volume is most instructive to the general reader and of particular interest to the student of peerage pedigrees.

The 1990 edition went out of print and people were scouring and hunting for this one a few years later. Thank goodness a reprint has been issued. Yes, it's pricey, but if you are a graduate student in literature or library science, don't miss this beauty. The scholarship is incredible; the amount of information is amazing.

This is a compilation by a geographer of another geographer's best writings. They aren't minting the Homer Aschmann type anymore, and we are much the poorer in consequence. His insights into landscape evolution are informed, unflinching and always reflect a staggering intellect. J.B. Jackson's Foreword places Aschmann in the pantheon of the best observers of the land the US has managed to produce.

A great book written by an investment banker. I used it to supplement my MBA finance class. Read it if you want to know how a venture capitalist thinks, or if you want to understand how financing decisions can effect your business.

If you don't know Fritz Pollard you must read this book. It provides insight into him and the people closest to him. It raises your spirits and makes you want to accomplish great tasks. This is an A+++++++ book for any football fan.

In 1965 Nelson Pike published his paper "Divine Omniscience and Voluntary Action," in which he attempted to show that these two things were ultimately incompatible: if God has complete foreknowledge of everything we will do, our actions aren't really "voluntary" since we weren't free to do otherwise.

That set off some dialogue that took place in scattered journals over the next twenty-five years. John Martin Fischer has here collected the major rounds of this dialogue into a single volume and added a helpful introduction.

The contents include Fischer's introduction and Pike's 1965 paper, together with the following:

Marilyn McCord Adams, "Is the Existence of God a 'Hard' Fact?"

John Martin Fischer, "Freedom and Foreknowledge"

David Widerker, "Two Forms of Fatalism"

Eddy Zemach and David Widerker, "Facts, Freedom, and Foreknowledge"

Joshua Hoffman and Gary Rosenkrantz, "Hard and Soft Facts"

Alfred J. Freddoso, "Accidental Necessity and Logical Determinism"

William Hasker, "Hard Facts and Theological Fatalism"

Alvin Plantinga, "On Ockham's Way Out"

William Hasker, "Foreknowledge and Necessity"

William P. Alston, "Divine Foreknowledge and Alternative Conceptions of Human Freedom"

Martin Davies, "Boethius and Others on Divine Foreknowledge"

I shall not try to summarize the arguments of these various papers. The reader should be aware, however, that the papers collected in this volume address Pike's claim, and argument, that God's _foreknowledge_ is not compatible with human freedom. The scope of this work does not extend to the question whether God's _causation_ of all events is thus compatible.

If you buy this book, be prepared for a lot of technical argumentation and modal analysis and that sort of thing. These essays are highly readable -- their authors are all able writers -- but they will probably not be terribly accessible to a reader with no background in philosophy.